A Study of Daytime L‐Band Scintillation in Association With Sporadic E Along the Magnetic Dip Equator

Abstract

In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of occurrence of L‐band scintillation in association with the appearance of sporadic E (Es) along the magnetic dip equator during daytime in 2013. The presence of L‐band scintillation was determined from signals collected with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) ground‐based Scintillation Network Decision Aid receivers from five stations situated at the magnetic dip equator. The detection and analysis of Es layers were obtained from GNSS FORMOSAT‐3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (F3/C) radio occultation (RO) data. Combining ground‐based data with the limb‐viewing geometry from space provides a unique opportunity to retrieve complementary information about scintillation and association with equatorial E region irregularities (i.e., Es) during daytime. Results for the first time show that daytime scintillation does occur at the magnetic dip equator and the occurrence is associated with the appearance of Es observed using GNSS F3/C RO data.

The Evolution of Complex Es Observed by Multi Instruments Over Low‐Latitude China

“…There have been many previous studies showing scintillations of radio signals within various frequency bands in association with strong E s , and it is believed that most of the daytime scintillations are due to E s occurrence (e.g., Chatterjee et al, 2013; Seif et al, 2015, 2017; Yue et al, 2015; Zeng & Sokolovskiy, 2010; Zou & Wang, 2009). In our case, weak GNSS amplitude scintillation was associated with the strong E s occurrence, but with different magnitudes in the signals of different GNSS satellite constellations.…”

“…Besides these mentioned above, multiple other kinds of techniques have been frequently employed in E s detection, such as incoherent scatter radar (e.g., Hysell et al, 2009; Yamamoto et al, 1991), GPS radio occultation (e.g., Yue et al, 2015, 2016), ionospheric scintillations (e.g., Seif et al, 2015, 2017), airglow imager (e.g., Kane et al, 1993; Mikhalev et al, 2008), and rocket sounding (e.g., Bernhardt et al, 2005; Pan et al, 1998). But none of these techniques alone is able to reveal all the features of E s occurrence since each kind of instrument has its disadvantages and limitations.…”

A Case Study of the Daytime Intense Radar Backscatter and Strong Ionospheric Scintillation Related to the Low‐Latitude E‐Region Irregularities

“…At low latitudes, most of the daytime/nighttime scintillations are due to the E-/F-region irregularities (Singh et al, 2016;Zou & Wang, 2009). According to the observations of several stations along the magnetic dip equator, the daytime S4 index at E-layer heights seldom exceeds 0.6 (Seif et al, 2017). The statistical characteristics of the ionospheric daytime scintillation at Sanya, where is 150 km south of Fuke, presented very low S4 index in the observation days (Liu et al, 2015).…”

A review of the SCOSTEP’s 5-year scientific program VarSITI—Variability of the Sun and Its Terrestrial Impact

“…For the use of GNSS positioning, Macalalad et al (2014) evaluated performance of different ionospheric models in single-frequency code-based differential GPS positioning. Seif et al (2015Seif et al ( , 2017Seif et al ( , 2018 investigated daytime ionospheric scintillations at equatorial latitudes and their relationship with the sporadic E layer and the gradient-drift instability.…”